Latest news with #healthapp
Gizmodo
14-07-2025
- Gizmodo
Jack Dorsey Drops His Second New App in a Week
Jack Dorsey is shipping. On Sunday, the Twitter co-founder shared a link on X (formerly Twitter) to a new app called Sun Day, which he claims helps users track their vitamin D intake. It's the second new app he's debuted in a week, and it's all thanks to the help of AI. Sun Day calculates how long users can safely soak up the sun before burning their skin using the UV index of the user's location, cloud cover, sunrise and sunset times, skin tone, and even what kind of clothes they're wearing. This feature is no doubt helpful to people like Dorsey, who casually mentions later in the thread that he does not use sunscreen. The app also tracks a user's time outdoors to supposedly estimate how much vitamin D they're absorbing. This is based on 'UV exposure using a multi-factor model based on scientific research,' according to the app's GitHub page. Just how accurate that model is remains unclear. Future updates will improve calculations with factors like height, weight, and the user's actual vitamin D blood levels. For now, anyone who is curious can try Sun Day themselves on iOS via TestFlight or poke around its code on GitHub. Like Dorsey's other recent 'weekend project,' BitChat, Sun Day was built using Goose, the AI coding assistant developed by Block, Dorsey's payments company. And both projects are part of a broader trend Dorsey seems into right now, 'vibe coding.' Vibe coding is a newish approach where developers rely heavily on AI assistants to generate and debug code using natural language prompts. This allows developers to focus more on the overall 'vibe' of what they're trying to accomplish with an app rather than the technical specifics of its code. The previous Sunday, Dorsey announced the beta launch of BitChat, a messaging app built for peer-to-peer conversations over Bluetooth mesh networks instead of the internet that does not require any phone numbers, emails, or any permanent IDs to function. '[B]itchat addresses the need for resilient, private communication that doesn't depend on centralized infrastructure,' Dorsey explained in a white paper published to his GitHub page. 'By leveraging Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networking, bitchat enables direct peer-to-peer messaging within physical proximity, with automatic message relay extending the effective range beyond direct Bluetooth connections.' But BitChat has already run into skepticism. In a recent blog post, Supernetworks CEO Alex Radocea pointed out a major flaw: the app does not currently have any real way to verify who a user is talking to. 'In cryptography, details matter,' Radocea wrote. 'A protocol that has the right vibes can have fundamental substance flaws that compromise everything it claims to protect.' Since the blog post, the app's GitHub page has added a warning stating that the app 'has not received external security review and may contain vulnerabilities and does not necessarily meet its stated security goals.' It's just a reminder that vibecoding might be a way for developers to brute-force their way to a functional product, but users might want to think twice before installing these apps and taking on the potential security risks.
The Verge
14-07-2025
- The Verge
Now Jack Dorsey has built an app to track your vitamin D
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has released a new app that tracks your sun exposure and vitamin D levels. It's his second app in a week, after last weekend's encrypted peer-to-peer messaging app Bitchat. Sun Day is available now for iOS via TestFlight, and the code for the project is available on GitHub. The app uses location-based data to display your local UV index and sunlight hours. You can detail your skin type and clothing level, then manually toggle when you're in and out of the sun and the app will track your rough vitamin D levels for the day, along with how long you can be in direct sunlight without burning. Dorsey says he's 'learning' through his recent weekend coding projects, which he's developing using the open-source AI coding tool Goose. It and similar vibe coding tools are one of the next key battlegrounds for tech's AI giants — just last week a $3 billion deal for OpenAI to buy AI coding tool Windsurf fell through, as Google swooped in to hire Windsurf's CEO and top talent onto its DeepMind team.
TechCrunch
14-07-2025
- TechCrunch
Jack Dorsey's latest app tracks sun exposure
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is on an app-building spree. After releasing a Bluetooth-based messaging app called Bitchat earlier this month, this weekend Dorsey revealed another app called Sun Day that ostensibly helps users track UV exposure and Vitamin D intake. The new app is available via TestFlight on iOS, and its code is on GitHub for anyone to clone. track your (vitamin) D a Sun Day app for — jack (@jack) July 13, 2025 Like other developers, Dorsey is riding the vibe-coding bandwagon. But instead of using Cursor, Claude Code, or Windsurf, he says he is using an open-source coding tool called Goose. Sun Day is simple to use. It shows you the UV Index for your location along with details like cloud cover, sunrise, and sunset timings. You can choose your skin type from six options, and what kind of clothing you're wearing. Based on these parameters, the app will calculate how long you can expose your skin to sunlight before it starts to burn. Image Credit: TechCrunch The app also shows your minimum vitamin D intake. Start a session by tapping on the 'Track UV Exposure' button, and after the session is ended, the app will show how much vitamin D you've gained throughout the session, and in the day.
The Guardian
03-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Streeting sets out digital overhaul of NHS centred on ‘doctor in your pocket' app
Wes Streeting has staked the future of the NHS on a digital overhaul in which a beefed-up NHS app and new hospital league tables are promised to give patients unprecedented control over their care. A dramatic expansion of the role of the NHS app will result in fewer staff than expected by 2035, with Streeting banking on digital efficiencies to reduce the number of frontline workers, a move described as a 'large bet' by industry experts. The digital tool will enable patients to self-refer when they need help, book appointments with clinicians, receive advice from an AI GP or see their medical records. 'The NHS app will become a doctor in your pocket, bringing our health service into the 21st century,' the health secretary said as he launched the government's much-trailed 10-year health plan. Highlighting that those who use private healthcare already get instant advice, remote consultations with a doctor and choice over their appointments, he promised that 'our reforms will bring those services to every patient, regardless of their ability to pay'. The plan is intended to transform the NHS in England into a more patient-focused service that keeps people healthier and out of hospital by providing care faster, digitally and close to their homes. However, while experts welcomed the plan's ambitions, they warned that staff shortages, the NHS's fragile finances and failure to set out how delivery of its many goals would be achieved raised serious doubts over how soon changes would be implemented. Sarah Woolnough, the chief executive of the King's Fund, said: 'Making significant progress to tackle hospital waiting lists while shifting the focus of the health service to prevent and better manage more care in the community is a tall order.' The NHS will have a smaller workforce at the end of the 10-year period, because ministers are so confident that digital care will have become commonplace. Woolnough said: 'The government is placing a large bet on technology and automation freeing up enough clinician time so that fewer frontline staff will be needed in the future. If that bet doesn't pay off the NHS could face an even larger staffing crisis.' By 2028 the app will let patients access a new single patient record containing details of previous interactions with the NHS such as tests, operations and outpatient appointments. The NHS's embrace of tech to tackle its ills will also involve AI taking notes during GPs' and hospital doctors' consultations with patients and use generative AI to create the first draft of care plans, in an effort to give clinicians more time with the sick. In a move designed to drive up standards of care, patients will also be able to see the data underpinning the rankings of hospital league tables, which will be published for the first time this summer – such as waiting times, how patients have rated particular services, and details of their clinical outcomes – and use it to choose the NHS trust where they will have their next treatment. Expanding the role of technology to help the NHS 'could be a real gamechanger', said Thea Stein, the chief executive of the Nuffield Trust. However, she rejected the plan's claim that the NHS was so weakened after 14 years of neglect under the Conservatives that it 'now stands at an existential brink' and needed radical surgery in order to avoid losing public support and becoming a two-tier 'poor service for poor people'. While public satisfaction with the NHS across Great Britain has plummeted to just 21% , support for its basic principles – a taxpayer-funded service that is open to all and free to use – remains 'high and resilient', Stein said. 'We do not agree with the prophecy of extinction.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The plan outlines how Labour will implement three 'radical shifts' in which the NHS will move from analogue to digital, treatment to prevention, and hospital-based care to far more community-based services. Keir Starmer, launching the plan in London on the eve of the anniversary of Labour's election victory, claimed that the embattled health service's future was rosier after his party's year in power. He cited the hiring of 6,000 extra mental health staff and 1,700 additional GPs and the 'record investment' the NHS was receiving -- £29bn more a year by 2029 compared to 2023-24 -- as proof of the government's support for it. 'I'm not going to stand here and say everything is perfect now. We have a lot more work to do and we will do it. 'But let's be under no illusions. Because of the fair choices we made, the tough Labour decisions we made, the future already looks better for our NHS.' The plan makes clear that in future, the more prevention-focused NHS will operate on the basis that 'care should happen as locally as it can; [be] digitally by default; in a patient's home if possible; in a neighbourhood health centre when needed; [and] in a hospital if necessary'. Over the next few years, billions of pounds of NHS funding will be taken away from hospitals and used to create a network of new one-stop-shop-style neighbourhood health centres 'in every community' offering a range of services, including diagnostic tests and mental health support. However, it is unclear how many there will be or when they will open. Dr Jennifer Dixon, the chief executive of the Health Foundation, warned that even Labour's cash injection would not be enough to fulfil its pledge to 'get the NHS back on its feet'. 'Making the plan happen with the resources on offer will be tough,' she said, given that the average 2.8% rise in the NHS's budget from 2026 to 2029 was well below its historic average of 3.7%.
Sky News
06-06-2025
- Health
- Sky News
Millions to receive NHS screening invitations and appointment reminders on their phones
Appointment reminders, invitations to health screenings and test results will now be received by patients on their phones. The government says moving to a more digital-focused NHS will mean 50 million fewer letters need to be sent out by the health service, saving an estimated £200m over the next three years. Instead, under the new plans, millions of people will be notified about appointments and other important notices via the NHS app on their phone or digital device. The app is set to become the go-to method for the NHS to communicate with people, the Department of Health and Social Care said. The changes will be backed by more than £50m investment. It will see a predicted 270 million messages sent through the app this year, an increase of around 70 million on the last financial year, the government announced. Wes Streeting has said this is all about modernising, as the NHS "feels so 20th century". The health secretary said: "The fact that people still get letters through the front door, sometimes multiple letters about the same appointment... The NHS has been stuck in the mud when it comes to the everyday technology we use to organise our lives. And that's why what we're doing with the NHS app is really exciting." Mr Streeting said the app will make using the NHS more convenient, and give patients more control, while saving money. He said these funds can then be invested back into the health service, to bolster things such as frontline care. Using the NHS app should be 'as joyful as Netflix' The modernisation of the NHS will also lead to fewer missed appointments, and therefore save money that way too, it is hoped. In 2023/24, there were around eight million missed appointments in elective care and almost one in three people missed a screening appointment. Currently, around 20 million people have opted in to receive messages from the NHS app. 4:01 Pushed on how the government will ensure that nobody is left behind, Mr Streeting said: "If someone like me is booking my appointment through the app because that's what I prefer to do, [then] that's freeing up a phone line for someone who wants to get through and talk to a person." He added that greater use of the app will give people more choice in "how you want to organise your care". The cabinet minister also made a bold comparison, saying he wishes that the NHS app is as enjoyable as using streaming giant Netflix. He said: "The NHS app actually has more subscribers than Netflix. It would be a really wonderful thing if using the NHS app felt - if not as joyful - almost as joyful as using Netflix." Other features in the pipeline - though not yet available - include being able to add appointments to phone calendars and request help from local GPs on the app. Faster log in methods, such as using Face ID, are also planned.
